Trent Rockets spin kings Rashid Khan and Samit Patel launched their side to the top of The Men’s Hundred table as they won by six wickets against London Spirit at Trent Bridge.

Returning for his final game of the Hundred, Khan produced his best, clean bowling three victims for 25 runs. Patel (two for 29) took the prize wickets of Eoin Morgan (27 from 16 balls) and Ben McDermott (30 from 25 balls) as they both threatened big scores. Luke Wood also impressed with economical figures of two for 23, with the Rockets bowling Spirit out for 122.

In reply, Colin Munro’s 67 not out from 37 balls and a confidence-boosting 41 off 28 balls from Tom Kohler-Cadmore were enough to take the Rockets home with 21 balls to spare. The result gives the Spirit their first loss of the season and puts the Rockets in prime position to finish the season in the top spot.

Put into bat, the Spirit got off to a flying start as Daniel Bell Drummond (24 from 15 balls) caught the eye with consecutive sixes in the first set of 10. The Spirit did lose the in-form Adam Rossington, but at 41 for one from the powerplay, they’d have been the happier side.

The next 25 balls would only produce 20 runs for the loss of two wickets, as the Rockets’ bowling attack fought back. Bell Drummond was the first to go, miscuing off the bowling of Sam Cook. Dan Lawrence would join him soon after, clean bowled by a Khan googly, to leave the Spirit in a difficult position.

The away side needed to rebuild and quickly if they were to post a defendable total. Morgan answered the call, striking two sixes in Khan’s next set. But when he attempted the same trick on the 64th ball against the ever-impressive Patel, he was caught at deep midwicket, leaving the Spirit 86 for four.

Sensing the moment to turn the screw, skipper Lewis Gregory threw Khan the ball and he delivered. The Afghan bowled Kieron Pollard and Jordan Thompson in a set of five which conceded just two. Three balls later, Patel would remove the set McDermott and the wickets kept falling. The Londoners lost their last five wickets for just 27 runs.

Morgan’s team talk would have surely mentioned getting the Rockets’ in-form openers early and his side did just that. The first was by luck rather than design. Dawid Malan, run out from the inning’s first ball, his partner Hales looking sheepish as his teammate trudged off without facing. Hales was back to apologise sooner than the Rockets would have liked, caught at mid-on off the bowling of Ellis as they ended the powerplay 33 for two.

Hales’s wicket brought Kohler-Cadmore to the crease. Bought at the auction for a £125,000 fee, the Yorkshire player was in need of a big score to match his top bracket price. Tonight, he proved his value as the partnership with Munro brought 85 off 51 balls and all but secured victory. The Rockets crowd would have one last big roar as  Gregory smashed a six to end the game and put his team top of the league.

Speaking after the match, London Spirit’s Jordan Thompson said:“If you look at our batting performance, we’ve batted well all competition and today it just didn’t click. In this format, in T20 cricket or The Hundred, there is always the risk of that happening. Right down the order we didn’t really build any partnerships to put a good score together.“

He added: “Rashid and Samit have played a lot of T20 cricket so they know what they’re doing. This is Samit’s home ground and Rash has played here for the last couple of years now, so they both know how to operate on this pitch in these conditions.“

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